TRIUMPHANT Arlo Bugeja has vowed to reproduce his winning form for Redcar Bears next week after emerging victorious in last night’s Stars of Tomorrow meeting at South Tees Motorsports Park.

The popular NEBT/Simpson Racing UK Bears reserve used the 12-man individual meeting as an opportunity to try out new bike set-ups as well as to test himself against a hungry bunch of emerging hopefuls.

And by the end of the meeting he was flying, winning his semi-final from the tapes and leading the rest home in the final to head off Workington’s Craig Cook, who finished second, fellow Bears star Benji Compton who was third and Buxton’s Redcar-based Kiwi Jade Mudgway.

And that’s great news for the Bears who have a hectic week ahead, with four meetings in five days.

However the meeting was held up after an alarming crash involving Stuart Swales from Stockton who was taken to hospital with concussion after being knocked out cold.

The 34-year-old former Boro Bears rider, on the comeback trail and eager to find a Premier League place, had won his first three races, clocking the fastest time of the night in the process.

He’d already beaten Bugeja too, but in his final ride he was wiped out by Grant Tregoning’s out-of-control machine after the New Zealand Under-21 champion had lost it coming out of the first turn.

Swales - who by then had emerged as one of the favourites to lift the trophy - also bit his tongue as he hit the ground and took no further part in the meeting.

The other rider looking most likely to stake a claim for the £250 winner’s cheque was Compton.

The gritty Yorkshireman, who cancelled a trip to the Isle of Man TT races to compete, won three of his four programmed rides as well as taking victory in his semi-final.

He won a fantastic tussle for second place behind Tregoning in heat eight, finally finding a way past his Bears team-mate on the final lap.

But Bugeja had the last laugh, swooping round Cook - with whom he’d already had one intriguing battle - in the final to take the chequered flag.

“I wanted to win it to prove it to myself,” said Thornaby-based Bugeja. “The pressure was on but I was going to give it 110% every time.

“I’m less stressed going into a Premier League meeting than I was last night.

“I’m riding in the Premier League so I should win a meeting like this - and that makes it harder. But you need that pressure on you to show you can get through it.

“I’m still not 100% happy with my bikes but in my last two rides I found the right set-up, which can only help when we get back to league racing next week.

“That was the whole point of this meeting for me - to try and get my bikes set up right.